Bitter and I are hitting the paint brushes and rollers today to get my office prettied up. She picked a tan accent paint for the stairwell, that matches what we want to do with the rest of the house. She wasn’t sure about it, but I loved it. I picked a dark blue accent paint for a far wall in my office, and Bitter loves it and I’m not sure. I’m concerned it looks too black under the jaundiced Congressionally mandated CFL bulbs. But I think once it contrasts with the other lighter blue I picked for the other walls it’ll look decent. But I digress… here’s the news dump:

15 Responses to “Saturday News Dump”

Do those NICS figures include states processing applications for carry permits? I haven’t bought anything new lately, but I went to get my LTCF last month. A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea, since the line kept replenishing itself as I moved along.

As far as nothing left to buy – after all the doom and gloom I’d been reading, I’ve been surprised that every gun store I’ve been to lately has at least a bit of a selection. Not overwhelming selection by any means, but if I really felt I needed something to defend myself with I could easily pick up a 1911. Of course, finding something to shoot out of it might be another story.

The problem with people complaining about CFL bulbs only shows the ignorance of the user.

Yes, if you install Home Depot Clearance Sale bulbs they are going to look like shit. They’re rated at 2700K but are probably lower than that and don’t make it to 2000 hours let alone 10k.

But… if you did even a basic amount of research you’d buy a respectable 3000-3500K bulb and step up from the 19W “60W Equivalent” garbage to the 23-26W bulbs.

I have excellent lighting in my house because instead of bitching about bulbs I didn’t understand and then being disappointed with the worst possible grade of them, I spent a minute to research what actually looks and works well.

SSSShhhhhhh on CFL bulbs. Saying they are shit, is the very same thing as saying “high capacity ammunition clip”. Both quickly show the ignorance of the speaker.

Does Congress want to compensate me for the time it takes to research what I used to just be able to buy, and have it just look good and function well? And spectrum is hardly the only issue with CFLs. I don’t like that they have warm up time. I don’t like that they have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.

GE and Philips bulbs have no noticeable warmup time. They’re also pretty easy to find in the right spectrum; just look for the ones that say they have a “warm” color. Almost all the trouble I’ve ever had with CFLs were with the cheap no-name bargain brands.

But yeah, it’s ridiculous that the government decides it can choose for us.

Damn government banned long private flights without filing a flight plan first, so of course instead of learning the system I’m going to make it as hard as possible on myself, then complain about it.

Damn government banned lead in paint, so instead of selecting newer paints that adhears better, last longer, and doesn’t poison me, I’m just going to stockpile it, but I’ll always make sure to complain about it.

Damn government phased out analog TV and Cellphones, so instead of learning why and how to use the new tech, I’ll complain about it.

Damn government banned shitty incandescent light bulbs, which were so inefficient that if I had any sense at all I wouldn’t be using anyhow. If I have some fake moral or ethical aversion against the popular CFL I could just simply select halogen bulb. But instead of educating myself, I’ll just complain about it.

Is that about right?

Dude, really? The government should pay you to educate yourself? They nor I care a fucking shit if you are too lazy to figure out what lights look good. But don’t blanket shit on CFL because you’re ignorant about them. No one is forcing you buy them, but if you do (you have) and aren’t happy with your selection (you’re not), that’s pretty much your own fault (not the fault of the tech or the government). Buy halogen or LED if you like, no one cares.

And spectrum has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. If you for some reason are running a printing press, halogen or LED might be a better idea. Otherwise, you’re issue is almost certainly brightness and color (I would bet 50/50). But hey, if you want to shit on people that say “high capacity ammunition bullets clip” and then say basically the same thing yourself about a different industry, no issue here, just letting you know how it sounds to people who know what they are talking about.

CFLs blow. Stop being angry at other people who understand how they suck. I should need to spend twice as much in time and money to figure out what works best. Just give me a damn 100W bulb. Which BTW, lasts longer, and in the winter serves as a heating source.

But that’s not Sebastian’s point. And you obviously missed it with this:

No one is forcing you buy them

Uhhh, have you heard of this thing called the US government who is forcing us to buy them? DUH.

I’m also amused at the implication that I’m some kind of aging technophobe, afraid of change, when I work in a technical field. It comes down to this: a lot of engineers that preceded me sacrificed a lot of hours and a lot of careers to make flicking on a light and being pleased something no one had to give a second thought to. Now I have to take time and research? Fuck that.

Fwiw, the bulbs down there are GE. They are advertised as “instant on.” They still take several minutes to warm up to their full brilliance. The temp is 2700K. I can’t find anything more than 3000K at the local Target, Home Depot, or Wal-Mart, and if I have to special order something, it makes my point. And what if, at the end of the day, it just doesn’t aesthetically work? Those GE bulbs are 5 bucks a pop. What do I do with the ones I don’t like? Maybe I should burn $5 bills for light.

And the funny thing is, I have a stockpile of 100W bulbs, for my outside light which can’t work with CFL, because is has a motion sensor dimmer. The fixture downstairs could take them, but I’d rather not burn my stockpile on fixtures thatI don’t strictly need them. 60w bulbs would be an option, but I am trying to make a good faith effort to embrace the suck before even those are mandated away.

Are you really serious blasting people on a forum like this with this kind of pedantic rant about lighting technology you personally favor? Do you see the irony in this at all?

Since you seem to be slow in understanding the perspective given here, the point isn’t what YOU think is best for us. There is a such thing as overreach, and your line of thought rings true with folks who like to ban plastic bags, big soft drinks, and loud music coming from headphones. If you want to calmly tell us the pros of using CFL or LED technology that’s fine. Be our guests. In fact I suspect most would agree regarding the cost efficiency benefits. If you want the government to ban incandescent bulbs because you have a better idea and everyone else is automatically wrong then take a hike.

I still have yet to hear how a CFL evangelist proposes a convenient way to dispose containing mercury. Does anyone really think all those new bulbs will make it to the right dump site?

Aesthetics is a very personal thing. Where I spend most of my time with a computer or tablet, I have CFLs. That’s actually a reason I switched the office before the mandate. But for book reading, I haven’t met a CFL that’s as pleasing as an incandescent. My bedside lamp is still incandescent. Our dining room fixture is still all incandescent.

“I’m also amused at the implication that I’m some kind of aging technophobe, afraid of change, when I work in a technical field.”

Heh. I’ll tell you in the kindest way, that even working in a technical field, the day will probably come when you get sick of change that often seems like change only for change’s sake. I certainly worked in a technical field (once a “rocket scientist,” literally) and today I often think I’d prefer to crap in a hole in the ground, the way I did when I was a kid, than deal with trying to figure out how to get the parts that will work the way they’re supposed to, to make my toilet flush dependably.
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But, to light bulbs: Does GE make good CFLs? Back in the incandescent days, I worked for the corporation, and could get GE bulbs in the company store at a big discount. But, they were so crappy that they could have given them to me for free, and I wouldn’t have used them. The bias remains to this day.